Marion Schumann

Marion Schumann started her career as an Interpreter/ Sales & Marketing Officer within a subsidiary of the Guinness Peat Group, covering the Soviet Union and Satellite States. Having a degree in Russian and Czech meant that Marion could work effectively in Eastern Europe. After leaving, LPC Chemicals & Dyes, she joined a Danish Company, DANSPITAL, which provided hospital equipment and supplies to African Countries, a job she enjoyed enormously. In between these jobs Marion Volunteered as a Supplementary School Teacher, teaching underprivileged children on Saturdays in Tower Hamlets, East London.

She took this Volunteering very seriously, turning up every Saturday, when she was in London, to teach these children. She loved the fact she was teaching useful subjects, such as English, basic Maths and French. She had hoped the children would learn Russian, but they were too frightened to take the subject on. Marion decided to wait for them to get older.

Marion had several jobs after Danspital, as she moved into the Housing Sector, local authorities, namely Lambeth, Hammersmith & Fulham, Housing Associations and local politics.

Marion was part of the Group of 4 who set up Ekaya Housing Association, the others being Dorothy Quest, Maggie Scarlett and Sergius Ephson. The organisation started with just 2 properties one in Saltoun Rd Brixton and one in Gauden Rd, Clapham, London. On leaving the organisation in 1998 after 11 years of being its first Director/ CEO, Ekaya operated in 7 South London boroughs, had a property portfolio of over 500 properties, including hostels and a healthy bank balance.

She was a Lambeth Councilor from 1990-1994; she was Chair of Housing Management; Vice Chair of Housing and the Mayor of Lambeth/193-94. She opened the Channel Tunnel with the Queen and other officials from the World of Politics, and celebrities, on 6th May 1994.

Marion Schumann was the CEO of Hammersmith and Fulham Volunteer Centre for 14 years. The Centre used to work across three sectors in the recruitment, placement of volunteers and providing support to Volunteers. The Centre was the key organisation for volunteers in the borough and had been successful in bringing new funding for innovative projects in H&F and LB Brent.

In 14 years, Marion was CEO, Hammersmith & Fulham Volunteer Centre (HFVC), she secured approximately £8 million of funding for volunteering.

Marion was successful in winning European Social Funds (ESF) for Hammersmith & Fulham Council (H&F) and for the boroughs of Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon. HFVC was also successful in winning funds for 2012 Olympics/Paralympics through the London Development Agency (LDA)/ESF Personal Best Programme for H&F, Harrow and Hillingdon.

The Centre had a good track record working with unemployed people in deprived areas of H&F and Brent and had managed to obtain paid employment for these clients. The Centre provided free (or subsidised) training for volunteers and unemployed people, and offered limited childcare provision, freely. It also worked with local business employees who gave their time freely (and sometimes some financial contributions and gifts) to local Voluntary and Community Organizations, all under their Corporate Social Responsibility Policies.

Marion is a keen volunteer and is eager to spread the message of volunteering across London. She is committed to engaging ‘hard to reach’ people into volunteering.

Marion was a Lambeth Councilor (1990-94) and the Mayor of Lambeth (1993 – 1994). She has a degree in Russian and Czech and is now developing volunteering and working relationships with East European countries and Member States of the E.U.

Celebrating Marion Schumann: 14 years of excellence with HFVC Dedicating 14 years to the organisation, Marion Schumann has decided to step down and begin early retirement. Being one of the most successful Volunteer Centre Directors in the country, she has been the driver that turned what was a small volunteer centre in Hammersmith & Fulham into one of the leading Volunteer Centres in England.

Through Marion’s tireless and dedicated work, HFVC has been able to achieve much progress and expansion as a non-profit volunteering organisation with a great reputation both in the UK and internationally. It has expanded from the Hammersmith & Fulham Volunteer Centre to become the HFVC Group, a group of volunteering organisations that includes Brent Active Citizens (which recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary) and Works4U, a social enterprise that supports businesses to work in the community.

Through Marion’s vision, HFVC established itself as a proactive Volunteer Centre, always looking at ways to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in Hammersmith & Fulham and other West London boroughs. Recognition of this work came through winning various awards, including winning an Excellence Award in quality standards in 2008. With limited funding available for volunteering, Marion expanded HFVC’s volunteering programme in the local community by helping those same people into employment, training, education, sports and inter-generational work, involving businesses in the community throughout and all this changed peoples’ lives. Initially a small group of four staff when Marion joined the organisation, three of whom were part-time, the HFVC team grew at one point, prior to the credit crunch public sector cuts, to an incredible 35.

Newly appointed Interim Chief Executive Dominic Pinkney, who worked with Marion as her Chief Operating Officer for the past year, said, ‘It has been an honour and a privilege to work with one of the best Volunteer Centre Chief Executives in the country. Words cannot do justice to the impact she has had, and the Hammersmith & Volunteer Centre will not be the same without her.

However, she won’t be disappearing completely and will still be a great ambassador for the organisation in the UK and abroad.’ Her presence and influence will be greatly missed, but she leaves behind a strong team which she has personally recruited to take HFVC forward. We would like to thank Marion Schumann for her cultivation, tireless dedication and huge contribution to Hammersmith and Fulham Volunteers centre for the past 14 years and wish her the very best in all of her future endeavours.